Special honour for Torness apprentice

Charlie Woodhouse from Eyemouth has been named as Torness power station’s ‘Apprentice of the Year’ at EDF Energy’s annual apprenticeship graduation ceremony in Worcestershire.

Charlie was joined by 58 other apprentices from across the business including fellow Torness graduates Allana McIntosh, Andrew McKendry, Liam McNeill and Ian Taylor.

All five of the power station’s apprentices spent four years on the company’s highly-regarded Engineering Maintenance Apprenticeship Scheme.

Charlie was given the award for his academic performance, his focus on safety, his commitment to supporting other apprentices and his work promoting STEM careers in schools.

Charlie said: "I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship programme over the past four years so I feel honoured that my hard work has been recognised. I can't recommend the scheme highly enough. I have developed so many new skills since I started and I am looking forward to keeping up the hard work in my role as Control and Instrumentation technician."

The award was presented by newly-appointed EDF Energy Chief Executive Simone Rossi in front of an audience of graduating apprentices and their families.

There has been a marked increase in young women taking up the apprenticeship in engineering and maintenance across the country.

CEO Simone Rossi said: “This year around 35 per cent of our intake is female – far above the average for STEM apprenticeships.”

“This is something that is very important to us, not just because we are firm believers in the power of having a diverse and inclusive workforce, but also because we know that there are many, many highly capable young women who for whatever reason are being deterred from considering a career in engineering and science.”

“We are trying to play our part in helping to make these careers more attractive and I am very pleased that we have just relaunched our ‘Pretty Curious’ campaign in an exciting partnership with the new ‘Star Wars’ film that features a female engineer as its lead character.

“This partnership will help us to reach out still further to talented people – boys and girls - who maybe had not previously seen themselves working in an industry like ours.”

In November, Torness launched its search for their 2018 apprentices. The training scheme starts with two years at the world-renowned training base at HMS Sultan near Portsmouth. The apprentices spend the final two years at their home bases where they get on-the-job training.

The scheme is open to anyone aged 16 and above, the minimum entry is five National 5s or equivalent, including Maths, English and two of either Science, Technical or Engineering subjects.

For more information contact:

EDF Energy in Scotland

In Scotland EDF Energy operates Hunterston B in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian which employ over 1,000 staff and around 500 contracting partners across the two power stations. EDF Energy employs a further 200 office based staff in East Kilbride. As well as generating enough power to serve some 4 million homes the company also provides gas and electricity to over 80,000 Scottish customers with around half of those opting for one of the company’s Blue+ products which are backed by low-carbon generation. We operate two windfarms in the Scottish Borders and make sure we buy enough electricity generated from a low-carbon nuclear source to match every unit of electricity we estimate our Blue customers use. EDF Energy is proud to power up some of the largest organisations in the UK, including supplying almost all public sector bodies in Scotland with after being awarded Scotland’s largest electricity supply contract by annual volume from April 2013. Following a landmark agreement with Network Rail the company also provides nuclear-backed Blue energy to power up the UKs electric rail network, covering most of the south east of England and the main lines from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the Merseyrail network around Liverpool and the Glasgow suburban network.